Welcome ようこそ to Emily and Sabrina's page on modern and traditional Japanese fashion!
Modern Fashion:
Street fashion: Street fashion is when the wearer generally personally customizes their outfits, they get their ideas from a mixture of current modern styles and traditional trends. The outfits are most often home made. Kogal(コガル): The kogal look is a tanned California valley girl type of look, the outfits are based on a Japanese school uniform but with a shorter skirt, looser socks, and they often have their hair dyed. platform style boots, make-up, and burberry scarves are other items often contributed to the kogal style outfits.
Ganguro(ガングロ）: The ganguro look consists of bleaching their hair either grey, silver, or various shades of orange, deep tans, white and black eyeliner, fake eye lashes, platform shoes, and brightly coloured outfits. (also very typical is bedazzled cell phones, tie dyed sarongs, mini-skirts, hibiscus flower hair pins, lot's of bracelets, rings, and necklaces) Lolita(ロリタ): There are differnt types of lolita styles, classic, sweet, and gothic. The classic lolita is a fairly traditional look, light coloured clothing, and more mature looking. The sweet lolita is a childish kind of look, involves many pastel colours and lots of lace and ribbons. The gothic lolita style is based from the look of victorian porcelain dolls, trying to look cute, almost to a point of looking childish. Cosplay(コスプレ): The cosplay look involves dressing like a favorite character from a manga, anime, video game, or Jrock/pop band or movie. They dress in very ornamented costumes most often home made.
Traditional Fashion:
Kimono(きもの): The best-recognized part of the traditional outfit, kimono are, essentially, robes. However, that is over-simplifying the elaborate structure. There are many different types of kimono that are worn by different people for different occasions.
Obi(おび): Obi are the sash used to tie up the kimono or uwangi. They are worn by all ages and both genders though there are different types for the genders (the obis for men and children tend to be thinner). They are typically 33cm wide, but can be custom-made thinner for a smaller client. The types of knots you can tie an obi are called musubi(むすび). What type of obi you wear and which musubi you use depends on your age, gender, the kimono you're wearing, and the occasion.
Uwagi(うわぎ): Uwagi are jackets worn over the hakama that has similar lines to a kimono. It is tied with an obi.
Hakama(はかま): Hakama are wide skirts with around seven pleats to represent certian virtues. These virtues held a lot of importance to the samurai who wore them to hide their footwork.
Tabi(たび): White, ankle high socks with separation between the big toe and other toes. They were worn by both men and women with geta, zori, and other thonged footwear. A variation of the tabi is the jika-tabi(じかたび) which was made of tougher material and had a rubber sole. Workmen usually wore the jika-tabi which were more like boots than socks. Some construction workers and craftsmen still prefer to wear jiku-tabi rather than steel-toed boots.
Zori(ぞり): Zori are flat, thonged sandals which can be made from either natural or, more often today, synthetic materials. Zori are a more formal sandal than the geta, but the material of the zori affects how formal it is.
Geta(げた): Geta are wooden sandals made of a solid block of wood for the sole and two wooden "teeth" underneath to raise the geta. The height of the geta was not for fashion, but rather for practicality: if your kimono reaches all the way to the ground, you do not want to get it filthy when you walk outside. However, geta are immensely hard to walk in and take much practice before one can walk safely in them. Maiko(apprentice geisha) wear a type of geta called okobo which, instead of the "teeth," have one solid block of wood.
Modern Fashion:
Street fashion: Street fashion is when the wearer generally personally customizes their outfits, they get their ideas from a mixture of current modern styles and traditional trends. The outfits are most often home made.
Kogal(コガル): The kogal look is a tanned California valley girl type of look, the outfits are based on a Japanese school uniform but with a shorter skirt, looser socks, and they often have their hair dyed. platform style boots, make-up, and burberry scarves are other items often contributed to the kogal style outfits.
Ganguro(ガングロ）: The ganguro look consists of bleaching their hair either grey, silver, or various shades of orange, deep tans, white and black eyeliner, fake eye lashes, platform shoes, and brightly coloured outfits. (also very typical is bedazzled cell phones, tie dyed sarongs, mini-skirts, hibiscus flower hair pins, lot's of bracelets, rings, and necklaces)
Lolita(ロリタ): There are differnt types of lolita styles, classic, sweet, and gothic. The classic lolita is a fairly traditional look, light coloured clothing, and more mature looking. The sweet lolita is a childish kind of look, involves many pastel colours and lots of lace and ribbons. The gothic lolita style is based from the look of victorian porcelain dolls, trying to look cute, almost to a point of looking childish.
Cosplay(コスプレ): The cosplay look involves dressing like a favorite character from a manga, anime, video game, or Jrock/pop band or movie. They dress in very ornamented costumes most often home made.
Traditional Fashion:
Kimono(きもの): The best-recognized part of the traditional outfit, kimono are, essentially, robes. However, that is over-simplifying the elaborate structure. There are many
Hakama(はかま): Hakama are wide skirts with around seven pleats to represent certian virtues. These virtues held a lot of importance to the samurai who wore them to hide their footwork.